A conventional distributed antenna system (DAS) provides indoor or outdoor coverage for wireless communications. Transmitted signals are distributed among several antennas in separate locations to provide enhanced coverage as opposed to a single location transmitter. The DAS is coupled downstream of a radio access network (RAN), that is controlled by a wireless service operator (e.g., Sprint, Verizon, etc.). The radio access network resides between a core network (e.g., packet core) and the DAS, and includes a plurality of nodes for implementing a radio access technology. Example radio access networks include the GSM radio access network (GRAN), GSM Edge radio access network (GERAN), the Universal Terrestrial radio access network (UTRAN), and the Evolved Universal Terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN).
The DAS interacts with one or more of the RAN nodes within the RAN network and external to the DAS. The DAS distributes downlink signals for the RAN node(s) and receives uplink signals for the RAN node(s). A conventional DAS is controlled independently of the RAN, and the RAN may not be aware of the presence of the DAS. In such a setup there are aspects of how signals are sent and received by the DAS that are outside of the RAN's control.